PORTLAND, Ore. June 7, 2010. The first
five-year report on Washington’s forest resources has been
published by the USDA Forest Service’s Pacific Northwest
Research Station and is available online at http://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/pnw_gtr800.pdf.
Printed copies will be available beginning this Friday, June 11.

“ This report represents a major milestone for the station’s
Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program,” said Charley
Peterson, manager of the station’s Resource Monitoring and
Assessment Program, which oversees the PNW FIA Program. “In
our annual inventory of Washington State’s forest lands,
this is our first inventory report to cover all forests, not just
timberlands, and the first that addresses a range of resources
such as carbon sequestration, biodiversity, dead wood abundance,
and riparian conditions.”

Washington’s total land area is 43
million acres, 22 million of which are forested. Forested acreage
is divided somewhat
evenly between the western and eastern parts of the state
along the Cascade Crest.

Washington’s timber
harvest volume has been declining since 1989. However, between
2000 and 2006,
total lumber production
increased. Washington will likely continue to be one of the top-three
softwood lumber producing states.

Washington’s forests
are presently a net sink for carbon. Growth of trees significantly
exceeds harvest and mortality overall,
owing to trends on public lands and young, rapidly growing trees
on private industrial lands.

“Considering the growing population in Washington and that
over half of the area is forested and provides numerous valuable
services and products for the state, many people should find this
report informative,” Peterson said.

The PNW FIA Program
is one of four across the country that collectively make up
the national Forest Service FIA Program. PNW’s program
conducts forest and resource inventories in Alaska, Washington,
Oregon, California, Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands with a goal
of improving the understanding and management of Pacific Coast
ecosystems.

Printed copies of Washington’s
Forest Resources, 2002-2006 can be requested by emailing pnw_pnwpubs@fs.fed.us or
calling (503) 261-1211 and referencing “PNW-GTR-800.”

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The PNW Research Station is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.
It has 11 laboratories and centers located in Alaska, Oregon, and
Washington and about 425 employees.